Burkina Faso Bronzes

Mike Cook brought in a figurine for repair which was clearly a primitive casting – and told us its fascinating story: Mike’s work had taken him to the landlocked African state of Burkina Faso, which lies to the north-west of Benin, famous for its antique votive and portrait bronzes. There he found bronze figures being made as they would have been for thousands of years – by a group of men sitting on the ground around a charcoal pit furnace.

Modellers made figures from beeswax, which were then coated in local clay before being fired in an open fire. Once filled with bronze, these primitive moulds were broken and the figures chased by hand using files and chisels.

Mike bought a number of the elegant statuettes as a memento of his visit to this truly ‘bronze age’ foundry, where technology has not changed for thousands of years.